iPad Perfect for News

Rupert Murdoch, the Australian-born American media magnate of News Corporation said that tens of thousands of Australian readers enjoyed content from his newspapers including The Times of London and The Wall Street Journal via paid applications, such as those sold by Apple’s iTunes App Store.

Thanks to a recently introduced paywall, it now costs a fee to read both The Times and its stablemate the Sunday Times online, which may draw some readers into buying iPad versions of Murdoch’s flagship titles. The Times application costs US $16 every 28 days and covers the Monday to Saturday editions of the newspaper.

Murdoch meanwhile, predicted impressive sales for Apple’s tablet computer: “It looks like they will sell around 15 million iPads this calendar year, and more than 40 million by 2012. And the iPad is just one of many tablet or slate computers in the pipeline. News Corp fully intends to be across all those platforms too.”

Murdoch added that subscriber levels for The Times website has also been very positive: “It’s going to be a success. Subscriber levels are strong. We are witnessing the start of a new business model for the internet. The argument that information wants to be free is only said by those who want it for free.”